Differences in the Feeding Mechanisms Between Polar Bears and Panda Bears

An animal's feeding mechanism is a study of what it eats along with how it eats and how the body deals with its food. These mechanisms can be widely varied from species to species even among related animals such as polar bears and pandas. Both species are classified in the Ursidae family, or bear family, but the two have markedly dissimilar feeding mechanisms.

  1. Diet

    • Polar bears and panda bears have different diets, one being carnivorous and the other vegetarian. The polar bear's preferred diet is large mammals such as seals and small whales. This animal has thick layers of body fat known as blubber, which is essential to its survival. In the absence of preferred prey, the polar bear will eat any animal it can catch as well as vegetation and human garbage. The giant panda is a fussy eater, feeding mainly on just 15 varieties of bamboo. In smaller amounts, the panda will eat a select few other grasses as well as small rodents and young musk deer.

    Food Finding

    • The polar bear is a ferocious hunter and uses its white fur to camouflage itself with the snow as it stalks prey. It is a powerful animal that will bite the head and neck off a seal in order to kill it. The bear will also wait next to a seal's breathing hole in the ice for the animal to surface. The giant panda has a more-sedate foraging technique of mainly just ambling through forests of bamboo selecting the preferred varieties. Pandas, when eating, will sit up in a human fashion and use their front paws to hold the stalks.

    Dentition

    • The dentition of each species is specialized for its diet. The polar bear has incisors to slice flesh, canines to grip prey and jagged molars to rip meat. The bear does not chew its food much, but instead just breaks it down into smaller chunks that are easier to swallow. The panda bear also has canines, which help in the rare occasions that it hunts animals, but its teeth are otherwise much blunter. Its molars are flatter and built for crushing and chewing tough bamboo.

    Digestive Ability

    • A polar bear is efficient at digesting food because of its high energy requirements. It can assimilate 97 percent of the fat and 84 percent of the protein it eats. The bear can eat between 15 to 20 percent of its own body weight daily. Generally, before hibernation, the bear will eat the most to build up fat stores. The panda is ill-suited to its diet, with a digestive system that works better with a carnivore's diet. Because of this, the bear has to eat 23 lb. to 36 lb. of vegetation a day. To maximize its diet, the panda only eats the most nutritious part of the bamboo, feeds rapidly and digests quickly.